These parcel preparation systems are more particularly used in distance selling and despatch companies for small-volume products. The main examples of users of these automated parcel preparation systems are the suppliers of office equipment, clothing, cosmetic products, tools or spare parts in the engineering industry. These systems make it possible to prepare, with a minimum amount of labour, in a short time and with precise stock control, a parcel corresponding to a precise order from a customer, said order relating to several products in different quantities, each of the products with its quantity being identified by an order line.
The known automated parcel preparation systems are generally composed of an automated storage magazine enclosing the products in containers, a picking station where the products are taken and placed in a parcel, a conveyor bringing the products from the magazine to the picking station and vice versa and a central management computer system.
In unit order preparation systems, each container is associated with a unique product reference.
An automated storage magazine comprises a plurality of superimposed storage levels in which transfer devices move products, for placing them within storage zones and for taking them from these zones.
A first known example of an automated parcel preparation system thus uses a magazine of the horizontal carousel type. The drawback of this system is linking the product flow and the storage capacity. In addition, it is not possible to resupply the carousel while it is being used for preparing parcels.
Another known magazine technology is that in which the transfer device is formed by the association of at least one transfer shuttle and an elevator. The storage magazine then comprises storage assemblies, each storage assembly being formed by a lane serving on either side storage racks with several levels, said racks being subdivided over their section into storage cells each intended to accept a product container, this lane receiving, at each storage level, tracks for the movement of a shuttle and an elevator being disposed at least one of the ends of the lane. A track is generally formed by parallel rails and the shuttle is equipped with wheels to move on these rails. The shuttles can therefore move horizontally at a given level, but also be brought from one level to another by elevators according to the possibilities provided by the manufacturer of the magazine.
Thus an example of a parcel preparation system is known based on a shuttle and elevator solution, in which each storage level comprises a shuttle that deposits the containers, which are specific containers disposed or not on trays, in the elevators. In this system, the shuttles are supplied by conductive rails. This solution is not optimum, in particular from the point of view of the occupation of the shuttles and the total cost of the installation because of the required quantities of conductive rails and risks of immobilisation of the shuttle in the event of an object on the rails giving rise to poor electrical contact between the rail and the shuttle.
According to another example based on this same technology, the shuttles are also supplied by a conductive rail but can use the elevators to pass from one level to another and thus travel on the conveyor.
In the last two examples, these systems require the prior transfer of the products in containers specific to the system.
Other examples of the design of parcel preparation systems based on magazine solutions with shuttles and elevator are given in the documents DE 202 11 321 U and DE 201 12 328 U.
The first proposes a system in which the racks in the magazine are subdivided into self-contained sub-sectors, each sub-sector comprising an elevator associated with a shuttle and a buffer area for loading/unloading containers from or to horizontal conveyors bringing the containers to the picking stations. In DE 201 12 328 U, the sequencing of the containers takes place at the storage magazine, the products being removed in the order of the order list and directed to the picking stations when they leave the magazine by a complex distribution system based on conveyors with circulation loops intersecting on different levels.
These known parcel preparation systems therefore have various drawbacks related to their manufacturing, operating and maintenance costs, to the time necessary for preparing a parcel, and to the complexity of the management of the movements of the various components.